Despite the lack of public participation at Monday’s meeting, the council made headway on all three issues; clearing up language in Lot 72’s lease, voicing their opinions on traffic in the city and giving the green light to investigating new collections methods for delinquent water users.
The first order of business before the council members was the lease of Lot 72 to the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. Although the lease was OK’d after years of debate, the exact wording still needed to be approved. Lot 72
The debate over whether or not to lease the vacant lot behind Hotel Corque to the trust was largely divided between two groups: Those who wanted to see the lot developed, and those who wanted the status quo. Eventually, those arguing for an eternal open space in Solvang won out and the council agreed to go forward with the lease.
Under the lease, the trust would be able to make minor improvements to the area. They could preserve the buried remains of a unique Chumash village, add trails and put up signs. The trust was specifically barred from constructing a parking lot below the ridgeline of the lot or allowing overnight camping.
Some residents remained suspicious and proposed a 5-foot denied-access barrier around the entire property to snuff out any chance that a road or campground could be built there. A problem arose, however, when the trust pointed out that the lot already had a road on it. This road leads to private residences and a winery.
Trust Legal Counsel John Poucher proposed to rewrite the agreement to allow certain types of vehicles, including horse-drawn carriages, maintenance vehicles and bicycles. Ron Hanley, the city attorney, agreed that the trust’s wording was more appropriate for the lease. He said that the language used was based on a previous denied access agreement the trust had and only added it in because the council asked him.
After some clarification, the council voted unanimously to accept the changes added by the trust. Councilwomen Joan Jamieson did object to one section of the revisions that allowed the trust to run electric shuttles on the property, so that section was removed.
Roundabout
Another long-term project the city has been debating is what to do about the intersection of Highway 246 and Alamo Pintado. The junction frequently is racked with congestion when Santa Ynez Valley Union High School classes let out, and rush hour also causes backups. Proposed widening of Highway 246 from Lompoc to Buellton may make the highway a major thoroughfare for Lompoc to Santa Barbara commuters.
The city contracted with Quincy Engineering to study what could be done to ease congestion at the intersection and held a public workshop on their findings in January. In that workshop, the company provided three possible alternatives to the intersection.
The first would widen the intersection but leave stoplights. The second and third alternatives have drawn fire because of their inclusion of roundabouts. One would place a roundabout at the intersection and another at the entrance to Nielsen’s Shopping Center while the other would only have one roundabout on Highway 246. The roundabout options faced stiff opposition from Councilman Ken Palmer, who prepared a written statement outlining his reasons for resisting anything but a light controlled intersection. First, he said, no economic impact study had been made for the nearby businesses. Palmer said these companies where among the top 25 sales tax producers in the city. He also said roundabouts were the most expensive option.
“I will not support a project of unknown consequences, especially when there is a feasible alternative.” Palmer also said roundabouts would shift traffic congestion elsewhere, might give Caltrans precedence to widen 246 through Solvang and could be dangerous to pedestrians. “I’m not going to vote for a run for your life,” said Palmer.
Most of the council sided with Palmer, even if their opposition wasn’t as strong. Councilman Edwin Skytt liked roundabouts but thought they would not work at the intersection. Despite the council’s lack of interest, the study will continue to move forward because of requirements in the California Environmental Quality Act.
Water collections
According to Brad Vidro, collecting money from delinquent water users is becoming an increasing problem, with the numbers rising every year. The city’s attorney proposed the city work with the county to add delinquent charges to the residence’s property tax bill.
Council member Hans Duss said he was concerned the program might unfairly burden landlords whose tenants did not inform them of missed bills. The city’s attorney said there were many options to notify owners, such as copying the bill to a land owner or sending them notification of a delinquent account. The council agreed that staff should look into drafting an ordinance. Once that is complete, the council will notice its intent to vote on the ordinance at a regular City Council meeting.